Unite reveals its new negotiation ploy…

Through the night Unite union negotiators and the bosses at Grangemouth petrochemical plant were locked in intense negotiations. After 16 hours of talks and in the face of strike action by workers the bosses walked away from table unwilling to budge an inch, and so…

“As a result, Unite will now call off all industrial action with immediate effect in order to protect this national asset from the scandalous behaviour of its owner. The plant should now start the return to full production and there is no excuse for this not happen.”

I don’t now how anyone could put out that statement and not feel ashamed. If Unite don’t make good on their threats, then what good are their threats? To my eyes it translated to:

“Yeah, that’ll show the bosses! Walk away from negotiations will you? Well then, prepare for us to NOT strike, go to work, and carry on business as usual! Ha, how do you like THAT?”

Unite reps went on to say:

“We are outraged that Ineos representatives walked away from Acas talks, after 16 hours of negotiation and on the cusp of an agreement, for the ludicrous reason that Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe instructed his management representatives to demand an apology on his behalf.”

Never mind the damage from shutting off the machines, why is the arrogant prick’s property is not being taken over by workers? This may be the key to preventing the “necessary” cost cutting (read: redundancies).

While the main effort of trade unions these days appear to be trying to disprove arguments that they defend their own organisational interests rather than the interests of the working class, this new ploy of defending neither marks a baffling turn of events.

If you are interested in discussing the role of the trade unions in the class struggle, no matter your position on them, this will be the topic at our next open discussion group meeting on the 30th of November, from 6:45 at the Fred Paton Centre, 19 Carringdon Street, Glasgow, G4 9AJ. (Facebook event)